Using Office 2010 for Seniors

Topics

The Office 2010 suite consists of several very powerful applications (programs), each with its own features and interface. To work with an application, you need to start it. All the Office applications[more…]

Creating a document in Office 2010 is an easy task. In Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, a new Word document (or Excel workbook, or PowerPoint presentation) opens automatically when you start the program. You[more…]

If you don’t save your work in an Office document, workbook, or presentation, whatever you have entered disappears when you close the application or turn off your computer. Saving your work stores it for[more…]

In Office 2010, clicking the File tab opens the File menu, also known as Backstage View. Backstage View provides access to commands that have to do with the data file you’re working with — things like[more…]

All Office 2010 applications have a common system of navigation called the Ribbon, which is a tabbed bar across the top of the application window. Each tab is like a page of buttons. To work in the Ribbon[more…]

Selecting content is an essential skill for any Microsoft Office application. Many commands in Office applications apply to whatever text or graphics you select. For example, to make some text bold, select[more…]

As you add information in one of the Office 2010 applications, you may have so much content that you can’t see it all onscreen at once. You may need to move around by scrolling through the document to[more…]

While you’re working in a Microsoft Office 2010 application (or any version of Office), you may want to zoom in to see a close-up view of part of your work or zoom out to see a bird’s-eye view of the whole[more…]

Each Microsoft Office application has a variety of viewing options available. Each view is suited for a certain type of activity in that application. For example, in Word, you can choose Draft view, which[more…]

You might sometimes want to select a multicell range in Microsoft Excel before you issue a command. For example, if you want to make all the text in the cell range A1:F1 bold, select that range and then[more…]

You may find that using keyboard shortcuts in PowerPoint is more convenient than using the scroll bar. The function of some PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts depends on whether you’re editing in a text box[more…]

Whenever possible, you should use the layout placeholders to insert PowerPoint slide content. However, sometimes you may not be able to find a layout that’s exactly what you want. For example, maybe you[more…]

A font is a standard way of making each letter. (It’s also called a typeface.) The font size controls the height of the letters. Across all the Office programs, you can choose different fonts and font[more…]

Themes are useful when you want to standardize the formatting across multiple documents or between applications in Office 2010. Themes generally specify settings for fonts, colors, and graphic effects.[more…]

If you’re not a great speller, you’re in luck. All the Microsoft Office apps share a common spell-check feature. In addition to checking your spelling, you can also check your grammar. When you see red[more…]

As you work in an Office 2010 application, the content you create is stored in the computer’s memory. This memory is only temporary storage. You must save your work when you exit the application or shut[more…]

To print from within any Microsoft Office applications, choose File→Print or press Ctrl+P. That displays the Print Settings in Backstage View. You can then set any print options desired and then click[more…]

Computers lock up occasionally, and applications crash in the middle of important projects. When that happens, any work that you haven’t saved is gone. You can, however, recover lost work on your computer[more…]